The demand for mild, biodegradable, environmentally friendly surfactants has been steadily rising. In general, most surfactants are based on, or derived from petrochemicals. Since these materials can have handling, storage and environmental hazards associated with them, it would be most desirable to use surfactants which are instead derived from agriculturally grown materials, such as carbohydrates. These naturally occurring compounds represent a source of renewable raw materials that are readily available, inexpensive, biodegradable, aquatically favorable and optically pure.
A new class of carbohydrate based surfactant has now been found, specifically nonionic alkyl- and alkenyl glycasuccinimide surfactants and a process for their manufacture. These compounds were found to have surfactant properties equal to, or better than, other well known nonionic surfactants based on petrochemicals, thereby indicating that they are viable sound alternatives to traditional petrochemical surfactants.